Boys’ lacrosse, girls’ lacrosse, swimming, and hockey all have something in common: the school does not recognize the sports as official school teams.

Every year, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) reaches out to sports that have not been recognized as an official high school sport. Although LZHS has voted towards qualifying club teams as IHSA sports, the state needs around 65 schools to say they want to recognize these teams as IHSA sports.

“When the IHSA asks us every year, we vote yes, we would love to,” Rolly Vazquez, athletic director, said. “There are so many schools out there that are saying, ‘No, we don’t want to abide by the bylaws, we don’t want to go into the State series, and we want to run the sport the way we want to run it.’”

Because there are not enough schools in the state saying ‘yes,’ club sports like the Lake Zurich-Mundelein High School Hockey Organization are struggling to be recognized.

“It it would be wonderful to recognize the hockey team, when appropriate, during school announcements or rallies to help celebrate events like our senior night or the IHSHL North-Central Conference’s Platinum Division Championship that the team won on February 22, over St. Patrick High School,” Ruben Medina, president of the Lake Zurich-Mundelein High School Hockey Organization, said.

But that doesn’t happen for a simple reason.

“We are a club sport, not a school sponsored sport,” Medina, said. “Unlike Minnesota, where high school hockey is a big-time school sponsored sport, in most of the other states high schools do not offer hockey.”

According to Medina, there are many reasons that hockey is not sponsored by the school, but the biggest reasons are that high schools do not want to have to supply expensive playing facilities for hockey, hire hockey coaches, or control insurance for liability concerns. The Lake Zurich-Mundelein HS Hockey team understands that being a club sport is the way things are, and the way things are likely to stay.

“We are very happy with the relationship we have with both the Lake Zurich HS and the Mundelein High School athletic departments and staff,” Medina said. “We align with each schools’ Athletic Code of Conduct, we receive exposure in the high school yearbooks, the hockey players are eligible for varsity letters, and students come to our games.”

Though the club sports are not funded by the school, according to Vazquez, he will continue to reach out to the other athletic school programs to see if they change their minds.